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On Leather Wings
"On Leather Wings" is the second-aired episode of , though the first to be produced. A mysterious creature is mistaken for Batman, and the police send a task force after him. Plot strikes at his first victim.]] Act One On July 13, a half-bat/half-human creature ghosts past the Gotham Air One police blimp, breaks into the fourth floor of Phoenix Pharmaceuticals, and assaults a security guard before stealing assorted chemicals from the laboratories. This is the latest in a series of such break-ins at pharmaceutical companies. The report from the blimp and the wounded security guard led Detective Harvey Bullock (after an unauthorized interview with The Gotham Glazer) to petition Mayor Hamilton Hill for a special task force designed to eliminate the strange "Batman" that has appeared around the city. Commissioner James Gordon objects, stating that the police are already on the case, but the mayor grants the request and D.A. Harvey Dent promises Bullock immunity. In the days following the Phoenix break-in, Bruce Wayne as Batman investigates the robberies. Gaining entrance to the crime scene by dosing the guarding police officer with knock-out gas, Batman attracts the attention of Bullock, who arrives at the scene with his special force. Act Two Batman, investigating, discovers an audio tape of the creature as well as some hair samples. The police task force tries ineffectively to trap him at the crime scene but ends up merely blowing out the third floor of the building. Batman escapes with the samples, which he takes to the Bat Exhibit at the Gotham Zoo. There he meets a married couple on staff, Drs. Kirk and Francine Langstrom, and Francine's father, Dr. March. Dr. March seems quite obsessed with bats, which he insists are the only creatures able to survive the next evolutionary cataclysm, while humans aren't. As Bruce Wayne, Batman asks the zoologists to analyze the evidence from the crime scene, passing it off as a pest problem at Wayne Manor. In the Batcave, the Bat-Computer has failed to match either the sounds or the hairs with any species known to man. Dr. March calls back and gives a perfectly plausible scientific explanation: the hairs are from a common brown bat, while the sounds are actually a mixture of sounds from the bats and a nest of starlings in the chimney. The only problem is, the explanation is false, given the Bat-Computer's inability to find a match. Batman concludes that March is lying, and the zoo staff are somehow involved. starts his transformation into Man-Bat.]] Act Three Later that night, Batman enters the zoo laboratory and finds Kirk Langstrom working alone. Working from his father-in-law's theories, Kirk has created a formula that temporarily transforms him into the Man-Bat. Kirk has become addicted to the formula, to the point where he thinks of the Man-Bat as its own independent being, taking the necessary steps to continue its existence - i.e., stealing the chemicals necessary to keep making the formula. Now that he has destroyed Batman's evidence, Kirk is only one component away from a formula that will make the transformation permanent - but Batman has interrupted the process. prepares to strike.]] Then Kirk finally transforms and attacks. In the fight, the Man-Bat drags Batman through the sky across half of Gotham. Both of them fly past Gotham Air One, allowing Gordon and Bullock to see that the Man-Bat and Batman were, in fact, two different people. Batman manages to subdue the Man-Bat. Taking him to the Batcave, he analyzes the chemical makeup of the formula and reverses the transformation. He then delivers an unconscious but fully-restored Kirk to his grateful wife. Continuity * In , Kirk Langstrom's formula would later be the basis for Able Cuvier's Splicing formula. * In , Professor Milo claims to have collected Kirk Langstrom's notes for use by the genetics division of Project Cadmus. Background information Home video releases * Batman: The Legend Begins (VHS) * * Batman: The Complete Animated Series (DVD) * Batman: The Legend Begins (DVD) Production notes * Although this was technically the first episode made, the honor of introducing the series went to "The Cat and the Claw, Part I", which most likely aired first due to the success of Batman Returns. * Danny Elfman's theme from the first Batman movie is strongly used in one scene. Production inconsistencies * In the robbery report on the Batcomputer, the Carson Chemicals burglary is misspelled "buaglary". Trivia * This episode was the first one to feature Batman bleeding. Bruce Timm stated on the DVD commentary for this episode that he and Paul Dini fought with the censors to allow this shot, which was deemed inappropriate for younger viewers. * Producer Eric Radomski says in the commentary that he had a crush on Meredith MacRae, who voiced Francine Langstrom. * In the episode "Splicers", Terry McGinnis is unwillingly transformed into another Man-Bat. Will Friedle was given a tape of this episode to help him prepare for voicing the transformation. * Batman answers Dr. March's phone call saying "What's up, Doc?," Bugs Bunny's catchphrase. * Dr. March's line "They're survivors", referring to bats, was similarly said by Batman in Tim Burton's Batman, "They're great survivors." * The opening of the episode is reversed, shot for shot, in the end of the episode "Epilogue", which was written before JLU was renewed for a third season and was expected by the producers to be the last aired episode in the DC Animated Universe. As such, the blimp pilot (voiced by Kevin Conroy) who asks "Did you see that?" is mirrored by a Gotham police officer (also voiced by Conroy) asking the same question as the last line spoken in the episode (and chronologically, the DCAU). * This marks one of the very few times in the series where Batman speaks using Bruce Wayne's voice. * The actual DC Animated Universe finale, the episode "Destroyer" has Batman (Conroy) say the second to last line of the DCAU "Don't you have a tall building to go leap?" to Superman, which mirrors Conroy voicing the second line of the DCAU. * The opening of the episode is also mirrored in the opening scene of the Supernatural episode "Like A Virgin" with a small plane passenger asking the pilot if they "saw that" flying outside the window that looked like a large bat. Perhaps in respect to this, Batman is mentioned later in the episode. Cast Quotes Category:A to Z Category:Batman: The Animated Series episodes